Machu Picchu

After a lot of back and forth and indecisiveness, I finally decided to visit Machu Picchu. Booked a train ticket - the only way of getting there except for a 8 hour mini bus ride over the Andes followed by hours of hiking - and left for Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of the mountain, on Monday. The train ticket is actually 2h of bus ride and 2h train.

Once in Aguas Calientes I needed to get a ticket to visit Machu Picchu, as I didn’t have one yet. Officially, tickets sell out months in advance, but what many don’t know is that there is usually a contingency of 1000 extra tickets being sold every day for the following day’s time slot. So, I spent the rest of the day queuing. First to get a number for the ticket queue and 2h later queued again at the actual ticket queue…How does that make sense? No one knows…Anyways, at least I got to make some new friends in the queue, and 3 hours later we were happy owners of tickets for course 2 (the most complete course through the ruins) and the first entrance time slot at 6 am the next day!

While the weather forecast predicted rain for all of Tuesday, there was none. Lucky us!
Spent 3h at the sight - admiring the ruins and even spotting Hummingbirds and a Vicunja! - before hiking back down to Aguas Calientes (not my favourite town…90% tourists, loud and dirty) to catch the train/bus back to Cusco.

Glad to have decided not to skip this world wonder. It was simply breathtaking!

Now getting ready to start cycling eastbound tomorrow! 🚴‍♀️ Wish me luck 🍀Read more